When hospice reverts to the lowest common denominator and leaders obsess about metrics, it's time to speak. Self-inflated leaders assume clinicians give until their backs break, given no raises for years. A clinical ladder is a rainbow’s pot of gold. Others have a sorrier job and must be motivated by money. Abysmal leaders dangle extrinsic rewards for admission, hiring and EDBITA targets. “Sign on” bonuses entice people into a poor work environment. Employees’ voice equals their raise, zero.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

I realize your aim is to expose how corporate America drove the heart from your hospice, turning it into a generic replica. That said, Gentiva's Tony Strange speaks the language of Wall Street. I thought you might get a kick out of last year's stockholder vote on Executive Compensation. This metric showed:

For - 8.6 millionAgainst - 14.9 million

The proposal (shown below) lost by 6.3 million votes. This vote is only advisory for Gentiva's Board of Directors.

Executive Compensation Vote

We
believe that our executive compensation program has been effective in
aligning the interests of shareholders and executives, incentivizing the
accomplishment of corporate goals, and attracting and
retaining talented executives. In deciding how to vote on this
Say-on-Pay proposal, please consider that we take into account the
following factors regarding developing and overseeing our compensation
program, which are described in detail in this
proxy statement under the heading “Executive Compensation—Compensation
Discussion and Analysis”:

Aligning executive decision making with our business strategy and goal setting;

•

Reflecting
industry standards, offering competitive total compensation
opportunities and balancing the need for talent with reasonable
compensation
expense; and

•

Providing
executives with information so that they understand their total
compensation and how rewards are generally a function of both
organizational
and individual performance.

Our Board of Directors, therefore, urges you to approve the compensation of our
named executive officers by voting in favor of the following resolution:

“RESOLVED,
that the shareholders
approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive
officers, as disclosed in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis, the
compensation tables and the accompanying narrative as presented in this
proxy statement.”

Vote Required

The
affirmative
vote of the holders of the majority of the shares represented at the
meeting and who are entitled to vote on, and who vote for, against, or
expressly abstain, is required to approve the resolution. As an advisory
vote, this
Say-on-Pay proposal is not binding. However, our Board of Directors and
our Compensation, Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee value
the opinions of our shareholders and will consider the outcome of the
vote when making future compensation
decisions regarding Gentiva’s named executive officers. The Board of
Directors has made a determination to provide for annual say-on-pay
advisory votes, and accordingly, unless modified, the next say-on-pay
advisory vote will be held at our 2013 annual meeting of shareholders.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Welcome to Generic Hospice. I'm StrangeTony, not to be confused with the CEO of Gentiva, a gentleman named Tony Strange. I work in a hospice that once provided outstanding, personal care to patients. Then our hospice merged into another company and then another.

Change meant doing more with less, a common refrain in today's corporate world. Outstanding nurses left after years with no raises. Apparently marketing people breed and die like mice. They came in droves, scurried around, then moved on to other jobs or perished. It's not clear which.

Generic Hospice removed the heart from our hospice, replacing it with randomly changing rules, admission goals and EBDITA targets. Fortunately, we have a bereavement person to help me grieve the loss of the unique and special service we once provided. It died 1-9-12. This blog rises from those ashes.